{"id":55998,"date":"2021-02-13T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=55998"},"modified":"2021-02-12T11:56:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T19:56:36","slug":"how-the-pandemic-may-damage-childrens-social-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-the-pandemic-may-damage-childrens-social-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"How the pandemic may damage children\u2019s social intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Do you remember the excitement and anticipation of your first day at school? Perhaps you were looking forward to making new friends. Or maybe you were shy and anxious. Research shows that such excitement and stress\u00a0are the two most common reactions<\/a>\u00a0to starting school. It is telling that a large part of this emotional response is social.<\/p>\n

Children are keen social learners, developing skills such as sharing, conflict solving and empathy at a rapid pace. These days, many children have already attended parent and toddler groups or nursery before they start school. So even if they have no siblings, their\u00a0emotional and social cognition<\/a>\u00a0has already started developing.<\/p>\n

But during the COVID-19 lockdowns, many opportunities for social learning have been lost. How will this affect children\u2019s development \u2013 and what can we do about it?<\/p>\n

Brain development begins soon after conception and continues at least through young adulthood. It is shaped by\u00a0a complex interplay<\/a>\u00a0between genes and the environment. There is\u00a0evidence<\/a>\u00a0for critical periods in brain development, such as adolescence, when it comes to social cognition.<\/p>\n

Social cognitive development, however, begins in the first year of life, when children begin to develop \u201ctheory of mind\u201d \u2013 understanding what others are thinking \u2013 which continues\u00a0through age five<\/a>. Play is an important part of this process, as it involves a lot of physical contact and development of friendships, helping children to cope with emotions and stay mentally strong.<\/p>\n

Researchers are yet to fully understand the ways in which lockdowns will affect children due to reduced or delayed social interactions. But a recent study provides evidence that some adults\u2019 social cognition has indeed\u00a0been affected<\/a>\u00a0by the COVID-19 lockdowns. The study showed that people experienced a reduction in positive feelings \u2013 making them biased to think negatively \u2013 which was significantly related to how socially connected they were. Those who were less socially connected were more affected.<\/p>\n

It is likely that children are even more vulnerable when it comes to long term effects of a delay or absence in peer-to-peer interaction. We know that social brain development is a\u00a0two-way street<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the environment, in this case social interaction between peers, affects the brain and the brain affects the emotional and behavioural response to peers.<\/p>\n

Social cognition is not only required for success in school and work environments and personal relationships, but also in \u201chot cognition<\/a>\u201d in general, which is essentially emotional reasoning taken as a whole. And we know that such cognition is a building block for \u201ccold cognition\u201d, which involves skills such as attention, planning and problem solving.<\/p>\n

For example, if children are not able to have creative play with other children, learning to empathise, compromise and manage their emotions, language development and\u00a0social communication<\/a>\u00a0is likely to be affected too. Indeed, it has been shown that children with higher social cognition\u00a0do better<\/a>\u00a0in secondary school.<\/p>\n

Ways forward<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For young children in lockdown, Zooms and remote meetings just don\u2019t do it. One mother, having to cope with perpetual lockdowns, put the problem very clearly to us. \u201cMy six-year-old suddenly gets very shy when talking to his class mates on Zoom,\u201d she said, continuing:<\/p>\n

And kids aren\u2019t just missing out on seeing their peers, grownup role models such as grandparents and teachers are suddenly gone too. Most young children I know don\u2019t really like video calls, so it\u2019s not a substitute for social interaction the way it can be for adults.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some children, including those who are shy or anxious and those with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), may be especially affected. In regard to this latter group, it is important that psychological and pharmacological treatments begin at an early age, which involves social interaction. One recent study showed that it is possible\u00a0to improve ASD symptoms<\/a>\u00a0in young children of three to six years of age with severe ASD.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the best thing that you can do as a parent right now is to ensure your young child has opportunities for play and social interaction with other children as soon as the lockdown is over and it is safe to do so.<\/p>\n

Governments should also develop special programmes for toddlers and children to help gain back the critical period of social brain development that they have lost. There is some evidence that children can benefit from\u00a0social cognitive training<\/a>, such as reading and talking about emotional stories.<\/p>\n

Loneliness affects all ages and is detrimental to physical and mental health and wellbeing. Fortunately, we now know that our brains\u00a0are still in development<\/a>\u00a0until early young adulthood and therefore, the possibility for relearning lost skills may still be possible.<\/p>\n

Author Bios:<\/strong> Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian is a Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge, Christelle Langley is a Postdoctoral Research Associate, Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, Fei Li is a Professor of Pediatrics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Jianfeng Feng is a Professor of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence at Fudan University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you remember the excitement and anticipation of your first day at school? Perhaps you were looking forward to making new friends. Or maybe you were shy and anxious. Research shows that such excitement and stress\u00a0are the two most common reactions\u00a0to starting school. It is telling that a large part of this emotional response is […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":55999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645,95],"tags":[366201],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-55998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-lifestyle","tag-social-intelligence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow the pandemic may damage children\u2019s social intelligence - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-the-pandemic-may-damage-childrens-social-intelligence\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How the pandemic may damage children\u2019s social intelligence - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you remember the excitement and anticipation of your first day at school? 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